Who Invented Baseball?
Alexander Cartwright Invented Baseball and Played in the First Game.
The Baseball Primer Series debunks the Myth that Abner Doubleday Invented Baseball.
The Abner Doubleday Myth
There are many myths surrounding the origins of baseball. Many people believe that a young West Point Cadet named Abner Doubleday invented baseball one day in 1839 while in Cooperstown, New York. That is definitely not true. The Doubleday Myth was first created by a panel of “baseball experts” appointed to determine the origins of the game.
The Commission based its conclusions on the testimony of one Abner Graves. History proved that Graves may not have been the most credible witness, however. Just a year later, Mr. Graves shot his wife, was declared criminally insane, and spent the rest of his life in a mental institution.
Furthermore, when Doubleday died, he left behind thousands of personal letters. None of them mentioned baseball. It’s hard to believe that if the man invented the game, he wouldn’t have mentioned it at some point during his lifetime. It is now agreed that Abner Doubleday didn't invent baseball.
The Doubleday Myth was perpetuated by the businessmen who founded the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936 in Cooperstown. They used the myth to establish a geographic link between the new museum and the origins of the game that it honored. Greedy rats
Who Invented Baseball?
In reality, baseball evolved out of several different “bat and ball” games such as English Rounders, Cricket, and American Town Ball that had been around for centuries. But there is one man who deserves the credit for establishing the fundamental rules of the sport and for organizing the first baseball game. He is Alexander Cartwright.
Cartwright was a member of the New York Knickerbockers, a club of young businessmen who regularly played Town Ball to escape the confines of their office lives and get some exercise after work. In 1845, Cartwright and a committee from his club drew up clear rules designed to convert Town Ball into a more elaborate sport. He called it Base Ball.
Cartwright actually wrote down his rules for Base Ball, and many of them are still fundamental parts of the game, including the concepts of: (1) fair and foul territory; (2) three strikes per out; (3) three outs per inning; (4) nine players per side; and (5) ninety feet between bases. He also outlawed the Town Ball practice of “soaking a runner,” which allowed a defender to hit a runner with the ball to get him out. Given the speed of a Roger Clemens fastball, that particular change was very good for today’s players.
The first baseball game played under these new rules took place on June 19, 1846 between Cartwright’s Knickerbockers and another squad known as the New York Nine. The teams reviewed the Cartwright Rules before the game, and then began the competition. One difference between the First Baseball Game and the current game is that the teams played until one squad reached 21 runs. There were innings, but they were not limited to nine. The New York Nine slaughtered Cartwright’s Knickerbockers 21-1.
Cartwright eventually moved to California in 1849 to chase the gold rush. On his journey across the country, he introduced baseball to every town he stayed along the way. He later moved to Hawaii and set up formal baseball leagues, which have been credited as the direct precursors of the Major Leagues.
In 1953, Congress officially recognized Cartwright as the inventor of modern baseball. Some baseball scholars now challenge this assertion, but to date, there is no proof of an earlier baseball game or an earlier delineation of the formal rules of the game. Unless and until such evidence is unearthed, it should be accepted that Alexander Cartwright invented baseball.
If you're a baseball fan, here are links to more Baseball Primer articles that explain the history of spring training, the fastball, the curveball, the knuckleball, the screwball, the wild pitch, the designated hitter, baseball uniforms and the ten greatest baseball teams of all time. Enjoy!
